Get process id:
tasklist C:\Users\Joel>tasklist Image Name PID Session Name Session# Mem Usage ========================= ======== ================ =========== ============ System Idle Process 0 Services 0 4 K System 4 Services 0 4,028 K smss.exe 308 Services 0 332 K csrss.exe 440 Services 0 2,580 K wininit.exe 516 Services 0 688 K services.exe 612 Services 0 4,728 K ..... Acrobat.exe 5876 Console 3 63,964 K chrome.exe 3668 Console 3 128,464 K Now, trying to kill Acrobat forcefully: C:\Users\Joel>taskkill /PID 5876 /F ERROR: The process with PID 5876 could not be terminated. Reason: There is no running instance of the task.
Retrying with /T option (kill all child processes too):
C:\Windows\system32>taskkill /PID 5876 /T SUCCESS: Sent termination signal to process with PID 4808, child of PID 7728. ERROR: The process with PID 7728 (child process of PID 5876) could not be termin ated. Reason: This process can only be terminated forcefully (with /F option). ERROR: The process with PID 5876 (child process of PID 1532) could not be termin ated. Reason: One or more child processes of this process were still running.
C:\Windows\system32>
Now even though it showed an error, the process was terminated.